After watching the movie 'In Bruges' I thought I was sufficiently prepared for our weekend trip to Bruges. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it turned out that Bruges is nothing like the movie. Half the cast of Harry Potter were not roaming the streets, there is no way you could possibly jump off the bell tower due to the huge gates at all lookouts, even if you did manage to get through the caging on every window, there is no way you would still be able to live to warn anyone about Harry, and there was a Canadian (Zach), although he was never punched. Overall the lack of guns and blood and guts was sorely dissapointing. However, there was one thing that the movie got right, Bruges is a fairytale town!
Our journey to Bruges was somewhat interrupted by Antwerp where we ended up waiting for a non-existent train on a non-existent platform. Our delay can be blamed on the kind man at the information desk ('Captain Information') who sent us on a wild goosechase to various platforms in our attempt to board a train going to Bruges.
Bruges is absolutely beautiful with its charming old buildings, cobblestoned streets, church bells waking you up in the morning, and echoing of horse hooves. It's hard not to imagine how the place would have looked like in the city's bustling golden age.
On our first night in town we went to a small candelit smokey pub - Joeys - to comsume some famous Belgium beer. At the pub we met some locals who took us to a club to show us the Bruges nightlife which was suprisingly good!
While we were meant to go to Bruges for one day and Ghent the next, we ended up spending all of our time in Bruges sightseeing, visiting the beautiful churches, climbing the 366 steps of the Belfort, drinking belgium beer and wandering around town.
 |
I took this happy snap when I thought I would only be in Antwerp for a moment - how wrong I was.
Turns out the movie got another thing wrong, Bruges isn't pergatory, Antwerp station is! |
 |
| My first Belgium waffle at Antwerp station - ate it so fast that this picture is just of a wrapper |
 |
| Cameron and Zac drinking 1litre of Belgium Beer! |
 |
| My first belgium beer! |
 |
Drinking the 70euro bottle of Champagne from Cameron.
It was served with fire crackers coming out of one side!! |
 |
| The gang |
 |
| The view from the top of the Belfort |
 |
| Not so happy to be in the chocolate museum |
 |
| It turned out the whole museum was full of chocolate propaganda. |
 |
| oh...i see....so chocolate is good for my teeth? |
 |
| The prettiest rainy day I have ever had :) |
 |
| mmmmmmmm |
 |
| They found all sorts of things to do with Belgium chocolate! |
 |
| Michelangelo's Madonna and Child |
 |
| Beer Factory |
 |
Sneaking (innocently) onto a Thalys high speed train and batting our eyelids to
get a trip home in a private compartment! |
Looks like you are having a fabulous time, would love to sample some of that chocolate and beer, wait are you old enough? :)
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful Pesach!!